Red Sun Celebrating 10 Years Of Poor Life Choices, Announces Anniversary Show

Heavy stoner/sludge/doom band Red Sun -- founded April 20th, 2003 in Warren, Ohio -- is celebrating the group's tenth anniversary by throwing a huge concert in Columbus, OH, on Saturday April 20th, 2013.

The band -- consisting of Zach Germaniuk (guitar/vocals), Joseph Rosenblum (drums/vocals), and Roger Vincent (bass/vocals) -- has come a long way over the past ten years and a lot of stories have come out of that. According to Germaniuk:

"We started out as three gawky high school kids growing up in Warren, OH (birthplace of Dave Grohl). We've had like 5 bass players through that time and I'd say the fact that we kept the band together for ten years through a lot of personal adversity, overcoming addictions, living and working in different cities and still making time for this particular band is a huge milestone in itself. When we started, we were really the only high school band from our town that was actively playing shows in other cities, and I think we really took it to heart at a very young age. I think we've made more mistakes than milestones, honestly, but we're really trying our best to learn from those mistakes and live up to the expectations of our mentors and ourselves, too."

Red Sun's members are currently located across the state of Ohio (in Columbus, Dayton, and Cleveland) but they consider Columbus their home because that's where they spent most of their formative years as a band, developing their sound, as well as forging a long-term friendship with fellow Columbusites Lo-Pan.

Guitarist Germaniuk explains, "They, more than any other band, are probably why Red Sun didn't break up years ago. They were our guides when we were 19, 20, 21 years old. Playing shows with them, and being as good as they are, you either have to get better or just quit, because they're going to blow you off stage. Our feeling was, if we could at least be good enough to not look like complete fools in front of them and their audience, we would be OK."

Some of the band's more recent highlights include the release of a split 7" (2011, Innervenus Music) with Mockingbird from Akron, Ohio, as well as a live EP (2012, Innervenus/Unhallowed Records) that was recorded at Carabar (in Columbus) during the band's summer 2011 tour with Churches Burn (from Columbus) and Pledge of Cain (from France). The group later said that drummer Joe Rosenblum's grandmother died the day that recording was made, and "there was just a lot of anger and frustration and sadness before the show. So to be able to get onstage and let all of that out was an almost spiritual healing for all of us -- you can hear the catharsis in the music when you listen to that recording, for sure."

Given the fact that all three members live in different cities, they have also found time to work on other projects outside of Red Sun: Joe plays in the hardcore band Swarm and the instrumental unit Matter of Planets, while Zach was invited to sit in on guitar on garage/psych band The Wooly Bullies' last record, which has since developed into a new minimalist, ambient project called Loner (expecting to have a debut record out sometime in fall or winter 2013).

However, since all three guys are such close friends that really enjoy making music together, there are no plans for Red Sun to slow down any time soon. In fact, following their anniversary celebration, they will be heading back into the studio in May to record material for another split release, while also working on writing new songs for a future full-length studio album. Red Sun has described the songs as "a mix of probably our most aggressive and also introspective songs to date, [although] we've always been a band with dual personality disorder: we still try to keep a lot of that teenage punk rock energy in our music, even as we get older and write heavier music to fit the shits life has taken on all of us."

In addition, details are currently being finalized for summer and fall touring. A decade in and still going strong, 2013 is shaping up to be Red Sun's biggest year yet! The Red Sun Tenth Anniversary Celebration is being held on Saturday, April 20th, 2013 at Cafe Bourbon St. (2210 Summit Street, Columbus OH 43201) and The Summit (2216 Summit Street, Columbus OH 43201). Full details are available at this location.